November 13, 2016

Join me and other kindred spirits today for a reviving walk through late autumn splendor concluding with a colorful November sunset and the rising of a giant supermoon, the largest appearing and closest passing full moon most of us will see in our lifetimes.

This month's "gossamer" moon also marks the seasonal movement of hundreds gees and ducks through Great Meadows and the wondrous twinkling of gossamer strands draped across the landscape as baby spiders hatch, let out their silken threads and balloon their way to new horizons. The moon will appear with the height of sunset color, soon after 4:30. Dress warmly. All ages welcome.

Co-sponsored by Friends of the Assabet River NWR

Led by Cherrie Corey, local naturalist/photographer

Donations gratefully accepted

Take Rte. 62/Bedford St. in Concord to Monsen Road. Turn left into the GMNWR driveway after #177. We'll meet at the kiosk just off the parking lot.

November 10, 2016

In response to so many grieving, frightened, and angry posts I've read in the past two days, I offer this visual moment of deep peace, loveliness, and bountiful color that I experienced on the eve of the election joined with Wendell Berry's poem, which also appears to be trending today:

When despair grows in me
and I wake in the night at the least sound
in fear of what my life and my children's lives may be,
I go and lie down where the wood drake
rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds.
I come into the peace of wild things
who do not tax their lives with forethought
of grief. I come into the presence of still water.
And I feel above me the day-blind stars
waiting for their light. For a time
I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.

July 12, 2016

Each town should have a park, or rather a primitive forest of five hundred or one thousand acres, where a stick should never be cut for fuel, a common possession forever, for instruction and recreation. (Journal, Thoreau, 10.15.1859)

Prophetic words from a visionary who would be 200 years old next year. The National Park Service turns 100 years old next month, and Walden Woods now has more than two thousand protected acres surrounding the pond.

I begin this morning's circumambulation of Walden's shore with these milestones in mind and eyes open.

Bright morning sun meets clear water, and the dance of light in the pond begins another day.

A still green frog remains vigilant

I just learned this week, at the Thoreau Society Annual Gathering, that renowned black-and-white photographer Edward Steichen photographed Walden through the seasons in 1936 for a limited publication. It appears that the most popular image of that series was one of birch bark, so it is in mind when I spot these two unlikely appearances in the water.

May 21, 2016

This strangely undulating spring season has finally taken hold and migrating, nest feathering, courting, breeding, and newborn appearances are at a crescendo. As my birthday week dawns, all the land again looks fecund and familiar, the perfect inspiration for a dawn to dusk communion with the wild rebirthing of the year.

Last night's brief but thorough watering has brought on the rising mist at dawn. While gossamer has draped the vernal marsh for many days, this morning reveals the first perfect orb weaving of the year (above), appointed with shocks of chartreuse buttonbush leaves emerging. Swallows twitter and soar over the water dining on thick clouds of spring gnats. And mama wood duck emerges from her box for a breath of morning air.

April 14, 2016

Over the last nine years of regular forays around Great Meadows, there are a few memorable moments that pulled me deeper into the wild intimacy of this refuge like no other.

Yesterday at dusk, I walked slowly along the westbound dike trail scanning night song for the bubble and squeak of rusty blackbirds, when I spotted a young red-tailed hawk high above in trees. As I raised my camera to catch his silhouette against the sky, he plunged headlong in front of me, crashing into the tangle of cattails beside the trail. I stood for many minutes in the chilling sea breeze waiting for movement or sound until the hawk finally stumbled into view, his foot seemingly caught up on something. But it soon became clear something was caught up in his talons...a male wood duck.

He dragged the duck partially up out of the water, then spent a long hour feasting.

It's hard to get a close view of these beautiful and demure little ducks in the impoundments due to their overly secretive and skittish temperament, but there are many within the refuge. Love them as I do, I was impressed by this young hawk's brazen hunting prowess.

April 10, 2016

Opening this weekend, these diminutive English sweet violets have announced spring's debut in our yard,with their intense purple glow and intoxicating perfume, for nearly four decades. They're a cherished gift from the vibrant Jean Baxter, one of my favorite volunteers at the Garden in the Woods when I was working there in the late '70's. Jean's wooded back yard in Lexington Center was carpeted with the progeny of a small violet plant she'd smuggled in from England several decades before that, and one precious pot full from the Lexington colony has flourished near my house for all these years. Jean worked faithfully with Concord's Penni Logemann to catalog the extensive slide collection in the New England Wildflower Society's library, creating informative slide programs that were rented throughout the region, their weekly banter as they worked always entertaining and informative. I wonder what Jean would think of the way we share images now...I've no doubt she'd be enthralled with the internet and digital photography.

Each spring, when I catch the scent of these first tiny violets, I remember Jean.

April 6, 2016

Yesterday, I took a walk around Great Meadows on pristine, snow-covered trails, canopied by a pure blue sky. Long stretches of sparkling white were unbroken by the footfalls of visitors and patterned by resolute tracks and foraging signs of wildlife and the intricate shadows of its rooted residents. Several scenes stood out for early April, and one was a first for any of the colder months.

Green on white, multiflora rose...a sequence we don't want to see in early April. Though multiflora rose and other invasive shrubs tend to be some of the first to leaf out, the heat spikes of February and March prompted buds nearly two weeks early this year.

Muskrat channels under the ice are usually hard to spot during any winter from the vantage point of the trails and overlooks. But with the flash freeze of the last two nights (19º and 15º F. respectively), combined with the muskrats' early spring activity, these channels were quite evident yesterday, both along the entrance driveway and in the flooded forest areas on the eastern edge of the refuge.

March 12, 2016

Deep in the protected hollows of Concord's Town Forest, grows a venerable and beautiful white pine, which I met for the first time in the spring of 2010. Her exuberant and towering feminine form and the hallmarks of significant age, prompted me to call her the Grandmother tree, and I have made many pilgrimages to commune with her since our first meeting.

Her trunk is pillar-like and tall, covered with a deeply furrowed bark that has patches of exfoliation. Enormous roots brace the tree, looking like large toes curling into the high duff (leaf litter) mound at her base. Massive limbs at the top rise up to the sky and the light, to hold spare tufts of dark green foliage interspersed with wind-snapped branches.

Join Cherrie for walks among spring wildflowers, returning birds, mating reptiles, splashing fish, and all of the sensual splendor of this awakening season. Wear layers for comfort out on the Dike Trail.

February 17, 2016

Since this month began, temperatures have bounced down and then up again by as much as 65º in New England, with a 64º temperature rise in just the last 34 hours! Crazy weather for February, but perfect conditions for hoar frost and panoramas of frost flowers across the surfaces of every flash-frozen pond, river, and stream throughout the region.

Frost flowers, like stars, on fresh black ice

If you're feeling the need of some seasonal grounding after this rollercoaster ride, enjoy the ephemeral winter beauty that John (my husband) and I discovered on a day's visit to southern VT yesterday. All along our drive from Concord to the Vermont border, every dark waterway was spattered with white crystals, as if the stars had fallen from the sky.

Once in Brattleboro, we made our way to the dirt roads behind Wantastiquet Mountain, the 970 foot prominence that forms a dramatic backdrop for the town from across the Connecticut River in New Hampshire. We were rewarded with ice flows and forms and luxuriant hoar frost that only this crazy two weeks of weather could have conjured...and just in time before an incoming snowfall and soaring temperatures changed the magic.

First stop, the stream and cascades along the Gulf Road (W. Chesterfield, NH). All of these spectacles were discovered in one brief stop along the road...only 5º F. so we moved quickly.

February 10, 2016

Walking on thin ice is an occupational hazard when you live a wild life in and around Great Meadows. Here are some masters caught in the act last evening and late this afternoon.

Some geese resting in rapidly freezing waters, while others opted to walk along the icy rim.

My blue heron friend surprised us both as the ice gave way underfoot

Composure regained

At 4 pm this afternoon, a large coyote gingerly walked out onto the thin ice to investigate a muskrat lodge, testing with his paw when footing was uncertain. Wisely, he decided against any vigorous activity near the lodge and returned back toward the shoreline.

The coyote catches sight of me watching him, from nearly a half mile across the marsh.

Beavers avoid walking on thin ice by poking or plunging straight through instead. Along the inflow channel from the river, there are a lot of punctures through the ice, along with tail trails and scent mounds.

For those of us who love winter in all of its crystalline glory, the stretch of days between February 5-20 rarely disappoints. Thoreau's Journal notations for Concord reveal winter wonders at their height in mid-February back 160+ years. This past week, even in the midst of the winter that almost wasn't, Mother Nature delivered one of the most dazzling snowstorms and accompanying Golden Hour light shows in memory.

This first February storm frosted every detail of the landscape, remaining undisturbed through a nearly windless night. The next morning Great Meadows was a dazzling winter wonderland. Punkatasset Hill looked majestic and its most venerable trees stood out in their brilliant white robes.

About Sense of Place - Concord

We shall not cease from exploration, and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and to know the place for the first time. - T. S. Elliot

Sense of Place - Concord is a community and internet-based, shared-learning initiative launched in 2008 by naturalist and photographer, Cherrie Corey, and attracting hundreds of participants of all ages. Under its framework, Cherrie and collaborating colleagues, have offered an array of natural history programs, walks, and on-line learning resources that inspire a deeper, more attentive connection to place, seasonal cycles, and participants' personal unfolding in the wild and cultivated landscapes around them. Offerings focus on the Concord and related New England landscapes, Thoreau's legacy, and the area's rich natural history, scientific, and philosophical traditions.

In addition to the following co-sponsors and collaborators, seasonal programs and field trips are also offered for other community and special interest groups. Clients and co-sponsors: Carlton-Willard at Home, Carroll School, CCTV, Clark University, Concord Children's Center, Concord Free Public Library, Concord Museum, Concord Land Conservation Trust, Concord Public Schools, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Freedom's Way National Heritage Area, Friends of the Assabet River NWR, the Garden Club of Concord, Lincoln Land Conservation Trust, Littleton Conservation Trust, Massachusetts Audubon Society, Musketaquid Arts and Environment Program, The Nature Connection, New England Wildflower Society, Nature Playscape at Ripley, Oakfield Research, Sudbury Valley Trustees, Rivers & Revolutions/CCHS, Thoreau Farm Trust, The Thoreau Institute/Walden Woods Project, The Thoreau Society, Town of Concord - Dept. of Natural Resources, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Wayland Historical Society. Seasonal programs and field trips are also offered for other community and special interest groups.